Buttons evolving – more social, more context

We’ve revealed it before that Flattr button is displayed over 10 million times each day. That of course makes me wonder if the button is effective enough in getting attention of site visitors, or if it’s even too effective with its poke-me-in-the-eye-green. Two great questions we have pondered for a while and would love solve are:

Is the button to much alike a sharing button?

Can we do something with it do help potential users to understand what it is?

To this we have one solution and one question. Lets start with the question.

Is adding a word in the button to explain Flattr a good idea?

We are thinking of adding a "Donations"

Replace the zero (zeros are sad and boring) with “Donate to site” or “Donate” and show the real click count by adding it. (The small button won’t fit all that). Another word we have thought of is “Support” rather than “Donate”.

Good, crazy, ugly, pushy? Speak your mind in the comments please.

The second solution is something a lot of you have requested.

Explanation "popout" you get when hovering the button

And when you actually flattred

This nifty little thing is actually already live. But it’s not on by default yet. As browsers are a tricky thing we need some time to test it and make sure we don’t mess up people’s pages. I would love your input on the content of the popout. Anything you miss, feel is to much? Do you hate or love it?

I like the second solution. It’s familiar–just what people are already used to seeing on many “liked” pages. (Though, like other cool Flattr features, I’m not sure if I could actually use it with my free blog, but I like it anyway!)

Regarding the first solution, I am not sure I would use a word at all–one of the main reasons I love the Flattr button is that it IS subtle and unobtrusive and not a direct call for donations. Of course, I don’t actually have any data to know what is actually more successful (it’d be really interesting to test it and find out!) And I’m with Kiwi, that OPTIONS are best.

Regarding word choice, at first I thought the opposite of Cyber Killer – that “Support” is better than “Donate.” Again, I think it’s just my preference for subtlety when it comes to money–just semantics really. However, now thinking about it, I think he/she is absolutely right that the word “Support” could easily be confusing for people.

In general a good idea, but there should definitely always be a possibility to opt-out. We already had that “donate” vs. “support” discussion several times and I don’t think we get closer to an agreement only by repeating it again and again. Technically it must be possible to choose the word per button, like the Facebook “verb to display”: “like” or “recommend”.

Using the word “donate” might be a problem for users in many countries. For example here in Finland receiving donations is very much regulated and one can get in all sorts of trouble for soliciting donations without permission (which is only given to non-profits). Flattr is already in a very grey area, spelling it out might push it over the edge :/

I like the popups. They help.
But I agree not everyone will like them. Choice is good.

As for Donate. I think it helps. Even though I see flattr as something more than a donation system. But I guess if you have one word to describe what you do Donate is the way to go.

For me it’s more like the web equivalent throwing a coin in the hat of a artist on the street. And this whole cultural flatrate idea…
Hard to put that into one word. And artists can always put some context around the button if they like.

I can confirm what Urho writes. The moment Flattr makes it unavoidable to have “donate” on the buttons, our charity would have to take the buttons offline. We could not take the risk to get into trouble, and this has happened to many NGOs already for smaller reasons – therefore the “paranoia”.

Great to know that the word “donate” can be tricky in some counties. I would argue that a word or not a word on a button does not change how authorities sees the button. But it might make them not understand it longer ;)

We will always have it as an opt-out if you don’t want it there. Even if we push it as default. Like it will be with the popout.

We also agree that “donate” is not the perfect word, but we can’t figure anything better. In due time the word will be “flattr” =)

You might consider options, Support verses Donate or even the classic Flattr. For me, it is the color more than anything else.

I like the popup, but I can see where people would rather not see a bunch of unknown picture saying they support. It almost feels like padding the box (look other people donate, you should to!) but then again, that might not be a bad idea.

I’m not excited about integrating the social networking in the pop-up though. I think that the Flattr button should do one thing well and that’s it. Leave it up to the site designers to figure out how to put it all together.

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Flattr

About Flattr

The idea had already been initiated in 2007, but the first release was in 2010 due to typical geeky laziness.

Flattr was founded to help people share money, not just content. Before Flattr, the only reasonable way to donate was Paypal but the transaction cost was (and still is) too high. Visitors would ignore the option. Sending just a small sum has always been a pain in the ass. Flattr is changing this.